Last night Terry Thompson, the owner of Muskingum County Animal Farm in Ohio, set free nearly 50 exotic animals, before committing suicide. As of this afternoon all of the animals with the exception of a monkey were hunted down by officers. They killed 18 rare bengal tigers along with lions, bears, and monkeys. The IUCN red list of threatened species estimates there are fewer than 2500 bengal tigers left in the wild as of 2010, mainly due to poaching and the destruction of their habitats. I find this news to be incredibly troubling for many reasons. First of all, Terry Thompson has a criminal record. MSNBC says "He was released from federal prison just last month, after serving a one-year term for weapons violations stemming from the discovery of more than 100 guns on his property in 2008." Considering they discovered the slew of guns on his property, you would think they would have noticed the tigers and lions running around his back yard. Apparently Ohio has no rules regulating the ownership of exotic animals. I personally have a hard time wrapping my head around this. I had assumed that owning and trading exotic animals was illegal everywhere in the US, but I was mistaken. I think a law forbidding the trading and ownership of exotic animals NEEDS to be created immediately, and I think Timothy Morton would agree. Also, why couldn't the officers have tranquilized the animals instead of kill them?? The treatment of these animals is abominable.
A pretty horrific episode.
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